Thailand; Day 12 - Chiang Saen

   With very little in the way of outstanding targets in the Chiang Saen area, we decided to spend the morning birding the wetlands around the harrier viewpoint we visited two nights ago, on the island of the Pa Mak No Temple. The wetlands were lively with birds, but there was little in the way of new birds. The highlight, and only new bird of the morning, was a surprise Yellow Bittern that showed well as it crept out of a small patch of reeds in the middle of the marsh. Other goodies included another, or the same, flyover Great Spotted Eagle and a singing Paddyfield Pipit in the field adjacent to the car.

  Once the temperature had begun to soar, we left the marsh and decided to check the Mekong River next to the Rim Khong restaurant, a well-known location to see Small Pratincole. Sadly there were none present in the half an hour we spent there, but the river was busy with people traffic and the haze made birding difficult. We decided to call it a bad job and return in the morning when the conditions would be better. Despite the issues, we had a few waders including our first Greenshank and Temminck’s Stint of the trip.

  For the afternoon we birded the area around the eastern end of Chiang Saen Lake to try and find some ducks and other wetland species that we are missing. Unfortunately we ended up looking directly into the sun, so most the birds ended up being silhouettes and impossible to identify. A change of location eased the situation, although the birds were more distant, we still managed to find Ferruginous Duck and Garganey between the rafts of Common Coot and Lesser Whistling Duck. In the fields adjacent we also found our first Eastern Yellow Wagtails of the trip, and there were good numbers of Little Cormorant and Oriental Darter.

  At the end of the afternoon we found a nice vantage point in order to watch the harriers. Based on what we had seen the previous evening, we presumed that the roost site must be up at this end of the lake somewhere. And so it transpired, with the dusk bringing both Pied Harriers and Eastern Marsh Harriers to an area of surface vegetation on the north side of the lake across from us. By the time we departed there were an estimated 17 Pied Harrier and 20+ Eastern Marsh Harrier flying over a small area of lake, finally giving us the spectacle we wanted when we started searching for them two nights ago. 

Species List:
Chiang Saen: Lesser Whistling Duck, Garganey, Indian Spot-billed Duck, Ferruginous Duck, Little Grebe, Feral Pigeon, Red Collared Dove, Spotted Dove, Zebra Dove, Greater Coucal, Asian Koel, Plaintive Cuckoo, Large-tailed Nightjar, Common Moorhen, Eurasian Coot, Grey-headed Swamphen, Black-winged Stilt, Little Ringed Plover, Red-wattled Lapwing, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Bronze-winged Jacana, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Temminck's Stint, Asian Openbill, Oriental Darter, Little Cormorant, Yellow Bittern, Chinese Pond Heron, Eastern Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Medium Egret, Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Glossy Ibis, Black-winged Kite, Crested Honey Buzzard, Greater Spotted Eagle, Eastern Marsh Harrier, Pied Harrier, Shikra, Asian Barred Owlet, Eurasian Hoopoe, Common Kingfisher, White-throated Kingfisher, Asian Green Bee-eater, Coppersmith Barbet, Lineated Barbet, Eurasian Wryneck, Freckle-breasted Woodpecker, Ashy Woodswallow, Black Drongo, Black-naped Monarch, Brown Shrike, Long-tailed Shrike, Racket-tailed Treepie, Barn Swallow, Streak-eared Bulbul, Sooty-headed Bulbul, Black-collared Starling, Siamese Pied Myna, Chestnut-tailed Starling, Common Myna, Great Myna, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Taiga Flycatcher, Amur Stonechat, Pied Bush Chat, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, Purple Sunbird, Plain-backed Sparrow, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, White Wagtail, Richard's Pipit, Paddyfield Pipit, Olive-backed Pipit,